Last week’s article talked about personnel costs driving costs to school boards at a rate higher than the revenue rate capped by the homestead exemption voted in by the Fayette taxpayers and subsequently voted in by all of Georgia. One reader comment requested to see employee totals for the same period I discussed 2008 – 2023.
While I have pulled the gross numbers for this period, I have sent some questions to FCBOE to make sure we correctly report the impact of the numbers. I hope to report the results soon.
However, when I was looking to gather the same data from Coweta and Clayton counties, I ran into some interesting roadblocks.
One information source I use for my writing is the annual financial reports that have a section in the back, around page 160 that report “supplemental information”. In this section, you will find the number of students and employees. There is a chart of attendance and size of schools over the past ten years. There is a discussion about the tax base and top employers in the area. For a data nerd like me, this is the promised land.
Having using Fayette’s reports since 2007 and every year since, I have come to expect their consistent format as a “basic school system financial statement”. However, a review of information from Clayton and Coweta counties has helped me understand that Fayette’s reports are far from basic and rather are the gold standard.
A reasonable person can see a good faith effort by the Clayton county Business Services – Clayton County Public Schools to offer supplemental information up through about 2018. Their supplemental information illustrated not only how many children in each school, but also gave a demographic overview of the system. However, the supplemental information became less in 2019 – 2021. No financial information has been posted since 2021 which is not necessarily a sign of trouble but is unsettling.
Coweta financial page is up to date, Budget, Financial, and SPLOST Information – Coweta County School System. However, I found it interesting that their financial information was more “basic”. To be fair, only an accountant’s accountant would consider an approximately 60-page financial document as basic. But it was disappointing that Coweta’s financial documents had no supplemental information that has been publicly available in Fayette’s documents since I have been looking in 2007.
This is a great reflection on our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Tom Gray and his predecessor Mrs. Laura Brock and the FCBOE Finance team. While both have been great about answering questions and helping me make sure we have our facts correct, they have been transparent with information so that the public can examine unfiltered data and make our own observations.
Some assume that information is only grudgingly distributed after a FOIA or freedom of information act request. I have never had that experience. Usually, the data is out there to be found, at least for Fayette.
As we continue to examine our school costs and seek opportunities to find dollars to direct to the classroom, this is an example of what services we are paying for in the Central Office. While there are opportunities in the administrative cost area, we must be careful to exercise caution to make sure we do not cut our visibility to the information to make administrative cost cuts. However, we should also celebrate the degree of transparency FCBOE is providing with important data.
